Just watched “Rachel Getting Married”. Not exactly a happy film, btw. But I didn’t know, going in, that Rachel would not be the main character. What other films can you name where the character named in the title would not be considered the leading role?
I was just mentioning to Pepper Mill that I could think of two movies where the nominal title character isn’t really the main character – it’s all really about the female lead.
One is Tarzan – The Ape Man The 1980 Bo Derek version, in which the infamous Miles and Miles O’Keefe hardly has any screen time, and no dialogue.
The other is the recent Phantom of the Opera, the Andrew lloyd Webber musical, which has a lot to recommend it. The Phantom isn’t one of them. As the Phantom, Gerald Butler is a great Spartan General. His singing is – off. Even with the makeup on, he isn’t appropriately hideous. Perhaps to make up for all this, the movie is rea;lly Christine daae’s show. I couldn’t see them shoring, say, Michael Crawford this way.
The Wizard of Oz is all about Dorothy.
Finding Nemo focuses on Marlin and Dory, although I suppose Nemo shares screentime.
Would Harvey count?
The Great Gatsby comes to mind, except that could be an example of how the main character isn’t the narrator. I’m not sure.
The Lord of the Rings, of course. No dialog; only appears (looking like inflamed labia majora) in a couple of scenes.
Bride of Frankenstein. I suppose this touches on the definition of main character, as Elsa Lanchester as the bride is certainly iconic and most of the movie builds up to her appearance, but she’s only on screen for a few minutes. (Elsa has another couple of minutes as Mary Shelley, but even so it doesn’t add up to much time.)
In The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini, the titular (knock it off) ghost has a relatively small role.
Rebecca.
The main character in Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke is really Ashitaka: a male warrior. The princess is a fairly important character though.
According to Nausicaa.net:
Roxy Carmichael doesn’t even speak in the movie and has less than five minutes of screen time. The main character is Winona Ryder’s Dinky Bossetti.
When you say “main character” and include any of the James Bond titles that refer to some person, like Goldfinger, Octopussy, Dr. No, and the various “Man with something”, the best the title character can do is share billing with Bond.
Oops, read this is as books. Sorry…
To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar count?
Waiting for Godot is a play, but there have been filmed versions. Not sure if any of them have played theaters.
In The Trouble with Harry, Harry has no dialog. He is just the McGuffin, not the main character.
John Malkovich isn’t really the main character of Being John Malkovich – that’s the John Cusak character.
Caligary isn’t the main character of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligary.
Bend it like Beckham only had a cameo of David Beckham.
Beat me to it. Yes, the title character is, in fact, already dead . . . but she totally ***owns ***the movie.
Marvin’s Room
Any movie version of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. The play should have been called Brutus.
The movie versions of Moby Dick. They should have been called Captain Ahab.
The movie versions of *The Three Musketeers *which should have been called
after the main character whose name I can’t spell and I am too lazy to look up.
God Is My Co-pilot. He never makes an appearance.
Raising Arizona
Bringing Up Baby
Alien
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Rosemary’s Baby
A Fish Called Wanda
Right. The main character of The Three Musketeers is D’artagnan, who is not a musketeer.
Saving Private Ryan is mostly not about Private Ryan.
Jeffrey “Big” Lebowski wasn’t really the main character in The Big Lebowski; the main character was really Jeffrey “the Dude” Lebowski.
Chasing Amy. A story told by ‘Silent Bob’ relating to the situation his friend was in.